An epic portrait of late Sixties America, as seen through the portrayal of two of its children: anthropology student Daria (who's helping a property developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert) and dropout Mark (who's wanted by the authorities for allegedly killing a policeman during a student riot)...

Cold, rain, and fog surround a plant in Ravenna. Factory waste pollutes local lakes; hulking anonymous ships pass or dock and raise quarantine flags. Guiliana, a housewife married to the plant manager, Ugo, is mentally ill, hiding it from her husband as best she can. She meets Zeller, an engineer en route to Patagonia to set up a factory. He pursues her, they join friends for a dinner party of sexual play, then, while Ugo is away on business, she fears that her son has polio. When she discovers the boy is faking, she goes to Zeller, panicked that no one needs her. He takes advantage of her distress, and she is again alone and ill.

Englisht title: To make a film is to be aliveOriginal title: Fare un film per me è vivere

1995/Italy/ 52’/ Documentary / Colour

The fact that Beyond the Clouds was made at all represents something of a miracle, given that the octogenarian Antonioni had not made a picture in more than a decade as a result of a debilitating stroke, suffered a few years earlier, that left him essentially without speech. Otherwise physically and mentally capable, undauntedly, Antonioni summoned his strength to adapt some of his short stories into a script, recruited a first-class cast and shot it in Italy with backup from Wim Wenders, the German director who helmed the wraparound connecting material.